Friday, April 11, 2008

This post is now somewhat out of date with patch changes. Updated post here.

If there is one thing I do well in this game, oh yeah besides heal and yes, fish, is making money. It's actually sort of become another game for me, how high can my gold total go? I've started to wonder what I could do with it... could I become a wow loan shark? Could I start being some crazy philanthropist and give it away to random people? Could I see what people would actually do for wow gold? Actually I will probably save it for a rainy day, that rainy day being when I can't play that much anymore and won't be making as much money.

Now I don't think making money in the game is just a matter of putting in a lot of time. It's about getting a good return on your investment whether that investment is time or money (here's my MBA talking). It's about knowing what to farm that takes the least amount of time but at the same time brings in the most amount of money. It's about looking at what the current trends are on the AH and using them to your advantage.

So not everyone is a herbalist, alchemist, and fisherman (the three professions I use together to make my gold... and yes alchemy and fishing go well together). But there are three new daily quests that everyone should be doing every day (hence the word daily...) because they are easy, quick, and have a great return on investment. Now these are the only 3 that I do besides the fishing daily and Gaining the Advantage (gather 8 Nether Residue), which not everyone can do (because not everyone has a gathering profession or has leveled up fishing) or wants to do (because fishing is too boring for them). But these three quests will take you 30-45 minutes and will easily net you 40-50g. The reason I really only do these three dailies is because they are easy, drop other stuff that sell well, and reward you with Shattered Sun Supplies. Here's exactly what I do and the order I do them.

1. Gather the quests. Intercepting the Mana Cells from Exarch Nasuun in the middle of Shatt, Sunfury Attack Plans from Lord Torvos (to the left of the flight master in Shatt), and Multiphase Survey from Harbinger Haronem (outside of the Scryer bank in Shatt).

2. Fly to Area 52 in Netherstorm. We're going to do Sunfury Attack Plans first. From Area 52 fly west to Manaforge B'Naar. I go here because it's close to Area 52. Any of the sunfury mobs will drop the attack plans, though I usually go for the Sunfury Geologists (who crack me up when they throw a rock at you), Warp-Masters, and Bloodwarders. Now while you are grinding these mobs to drop the attack plans, they will drop a lot of Netherweave Cloth, some Sunfury Signets and the occasional Arcane Tome. So while you're doing this quest, you can work on your scryer rep or gather stuff to sell on the AH. Just watch out for a wandering elite in this area... a large yellow robot guy.

3. Next from Area 52 fly to Evergrove in Blades Edge. Then fly north to Bash'ir Landing. What I do is fly down to the little rocks/barriers between the mobs. Then I can easily pull whatever mobs I need. First you will need a Bash'ir Phasing Device. I really only go for the mobs that are named Bash'ir something. So the Bash'ir Raiders, Arcanists, and Spell-Thiefs. I just fly from little rock to rock until the Phasing Device drops. Then when you activate it, you will see these little pink boxes around. Those are the mana cells you need to collect. I find its easiest to fly around to collect them. The boxes will be protected by Phase Wyrms. You can fly to a mana cell that isn't protected, but here's why it's not so bad if they are. These Phase Wyrms have a really great drop rate of motes of mana. Again, while you're doing this daily quest, you are going to farm something else that you can use or sell on the AH.

4. Now from Evergrove you're going to fly to Telaar in Nagrand. Fly west towards Oshu'gun until the top corner map of your screen says you are in the Spirit Fields. Now put on the Multiphase Spectrographic Goggles you were given by the quest giver. I've found that if you put on these goggles before you arrive in the spirit fields, sometimes you won't see the firey things you need. So wait until you get there. Once you have it on, also put the goggles on your action bar. Now you just fly around looking for these little balls of fire. Then swoop down and click on your goggles. Sometimes there are a lot of people doing this, because its such an easy quest. People can rush each other to reach these firey things. I've found that there are a good number on the northern end of the spirit fields/oshu'gun area (sort of south of Aeris Landing) that a lot of people miss.

5. Fly or port back to Shatt and turn in these quests. Now just turning in these 3 quests is going to give you 30 gold 30 silver. But you now also get 3 Shattered Sun Supplies. They will have either a crappy green, decent green, or Badge of Justice. I've gotten 6 or so badges from these supply packs. Now even if you don't get a badge, you are going to get a green that you can sell on the AH, sell back to a vendor, or get disenchanted to then sell or use those mats (many thanks to my busy disenchanter, Jess' alt Muriel). Now don't forget that you will probably have Sunfury Signets, Arcane Tome, or Motes of Mana as well! This is why doing just these 3 quests alone can make you 40-50g. For the time and effort involved, I would say thats a mighty fine investment.

Yeah I don't really do the Hellfire ones anymore... maybe because his constant yelling annoys me.

Another nice thing about the Intercepting the Mana Cells quest is that the mobs can drop Depleted Crystal Focus, which after using 10 apexis shards, becomes charged. They will restore 2000 life and are on a different cooldown than health potions, sorta like a lock's healthstones. I give all of mine to Jess (make sure you transfer than before using the apexis shards on them... once you do, they are soulbound) so she can use them in Kara in addition to health potions.